Alison here. We are about to celebrate 7 weeks of being on the road!!!! Our odometer is saying we’ve traveled over 3500 miles. Wow! That HAS to be God. He is faithful in making Mable able! Especially when we look back and remember that at one point we weren’t sure we were going to make it out of Grand Rapids!
Our verse for yesterday was Romans 5:3,4 “But we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulations produce perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.” We looked back yesterday and saw all those things manifested in our family as we journeyed through the tribulations! And, we give God all the glory for the smooth ride from here! Claimin’ it!!
We left Miami last Saturday after spending a sunshiny week with a beautiful circle pool. It was just what the doctor ordered for the girls. We needed a bit of a break from state parks in the middle of NOWHERE and this place was lovely with beautiful, well-lit bathrooms and avocados practically falling out of the trees into our greedy little hands. Well, kind of falling. The rules were that we could have any of those beautiful green guys that were on the ground. “NO climbing the trees like monkeys,” is what we were told. Well, one of my three (who shall remain nameless) found a way to go AROUND the rule when no fruit was found on the ground other than rotten ones. See, if you throw the rotten one at the good ones, the good ones end up on the ground and then in your possession! Clever middle child. Oops. So much for nameless.
We played some and worked a lot. The girls did their school faithfully while Christian was away each day working. Justin and I started plotting our course west.
We finally got Christian’s engine deal wrapped up! Thank You, Jesus!!!!!! It was a huge success with an extremely wealthy businessman from Bolivia ending up VERY pleased with my husband. We got to meet the man and his Porsche. ONE of his Miami cars. He lives on a 40,000 acre ranch in Bolivia. One of six ranches he owns. I call him Ricardo Montoban. He’s got shoes worth about what Mable is, I think. Nice guy.
Anyway, we met him at a Mobil station in Miami to give him his logbooks for his new engines. Interesting picture for you. A Porsche with the equivalent of Penelope Cruz inside crammed next to Mable at a Mobil station with Ricardo Montoban looking at logbooks with Christian. Then our whole family (including the dog) piles out of the RV just like on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and meet him. Yeah.
On our way out of Miami, I was feeling in desperate need of a haircut. It had been eight weeks and every girl can understand that there’s just a moment where you can’t stand it anymore! What to do? I had 50 min. before our meeting with Mr. Fancy Pants to find a salon and get the job done. First place I ran into was called “Zuna’s.” I walked in and there was a lady screaming into a cell phone quite angrily in some other language and it wasn’t Spanish. I turned around and went right back out. She probably laughed all day at how she scared that little white girl right out of her shop.
The next place was called the Hair Cuttery. Sound fine, right? It was; I think. Everyone was very friendly. Well, very smiley since I wouldn’t know if they were friendly or not since no one spoke English. I got them to understand I wanted a shampoo, cut and style through a mixture of smiles, sign language and well, I don’t really know how. Once we established that a half inch cut is not the same as a one and a half inch cut, we proceeded. My hair looks fine, but I must say my heart was pretty poundy there for a bit!
We began driving Saturday evening and have covered about 400 miles a day. That’s no small feat in Mable let me tell you. That’s like 8-9 hours of driving. I’m proud of my crew. We are pretty much a well-oiled machine at this point. We can get up, shower, tear down this motor home to travel, empty the poo-poo, etc., and get on the road in no time flat.
We get into a lot of conversations about Mable. Apparently she is quite the conversation starter. People cannot believe what we are doing. Not sure if they are surprised that our girl is up for the trip, or that a family does this kind of thing. Maybe they are just stunned to see us pull up at a gas station and put orange levelers that look like Legos under our tires so we can prop the back end up to be able to put gas in it. Who knows, but we look at every conversation as an opportunity to brag about how loved we are by our heavenly Daddy.
We are SUPER excited about the next leg. Currently we are a couple hundred miles outside of Jackson, MS in Louisiana and thrilled to have been able to visit family and friends for a day and a half or so as well as letting the boys work at Davis for the day. Mable got a tune up in Jackson as well and feels oh-so-refreshed.
Thank you all for your prayers. We KNOW you are because we’re still smiling and we’re still driving! We are having a hard time believing it’s October. There is no point of reference yet for seasons. We miss Michigan in some ways, but remind each other daily how blessed we are to have this opportunity. We should be seeing wild buffalos within one week! Yeehaw!!!!
We love y’all…
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
We're having a *swell* time :)
Hi everybody!
We're finally out of the Virginias! :) I don't think we could be any happier about that.
It was quite a journey to get here, and I think that we're all content to sit tight here for a week or so.
So we started out our journey last week, and our first stop was North Carolina. We didn't really do anything exciting, we just stayed one night there. In South Carolina, we stayed at a Yogi Bear campground for just one night as well. The morning that we were supposed to set off for Georgia, my dad found out that the engines didn't ship, and we had to consider going back to Virginia :O Thank the Lord we didn't, and we were able to set off for Georgia later that day :)
Every day that we drove, we made it about 150-200 miles. It takes 4-5 hours or so to go that much, when you factor in gas stops and Lily's potty stops :) All the days that we were driving, it was really hot, and we don't have air conditioning in the RV except for when we're stopped. So that makes for a really sweaty, long afternoon. It was super duper humid, and due to that and some other factors, Kyrsten and my feet swelled up! We looked like Ogres or Wild Things or something, it was really funny looking and very uncomfortable. We had a brief meltdown due to the chubby feet, but thankfully we're back to our normal foot size now :) Along with chubby feet, on the day that we were in South Carolina, my upper lip also decided to swell up! I looked like a duck. It was really weird and we have no idea why that happened. It lasted for about 16 hours, but after a good night of sleep due to the Benadryl, it was about back to normal...
So I think it was Wednesday that we drove to Georgia. We ended up staying at an RV resort that was just south of Savannah. The RV resort was SO gorgeous! They had a dog park for Lily and the bathrooms were the most beautiful public bathrooms ever! It was a really nice break from the state park bathrooms and showers.
Thursday we went to Tomoka State Park in Florida! It was like staying in a very wild jungle. The guy told us not to go out at night because there were rattlesnakes, we had fire ants try and take over the RV, and we saw an alligator in the river behind our RV. It was craziness, but we had a ton of fun!
Friday, my bottom lip decided to swell up! It looked like I was pouting for 6 solid hours! I don't know if I got bit by something or what, but I sure do hope that never happens again, it was no fun.
Anyway, we left to go to Naples Florida to see Grandpa and Grandma Josefina. It was just downright beautiful there. I would live there in a heartbeat! They take us right in and let us stay in their house with them, we got to sleep in real beds! Grandma Jo made us amazing, authentic Mexican food, and we got to spend the days relaxing on their farm. They have three awesome dogs that us kids and Lily spent a lot of the time with, and they have goats and chickens too. We had a blast.
We left last night after spending 2 nights there, and had quite a time getting here. We had to stop and pick up a rental car for Dad at an airport in Miami...Do you have any idea what it is like to drive the RV around the airport?? They don't make it very accessible to big vehicles. We drove up to go in the rental place, and just barely caught it that we are too tall to fit in there, thank goodness we caught it before we ripped the top off! And the drivers were just merciless; coming up behind us and laying on their horns and being very impatient. If they knew what it was like to drive the RV, they'd be a little nicer. We ended up having to park in a tow-away zone while Dad jumped bushes and ran across the street to the airport. A car was blocked in from the way that we were parked, so Mom got a chance to drive the RV for the first time! We quickly found a different tow-away zone close by to park in, thankfully, so she didn't have to go far. It was a pretty stressful night, but here we are!
This RV park is just wonderful. The bathrooms and showers are clean, and they have the prettiest circle pool I've ever seen. We're going to be extremely tanned by the time we are done here :)
For dinner tonight, we are having grilled salmon, baked potatoes, and no bake cookies! All prepared in our baby kitchen, by Mom. I don't even know how she does it, but I'm going to go get some while its hot. :)
I will update some more as soon as we have more stuff to share! Thanks everybody for keeping up with us!!
We're finally out of the Virginias! :) I don't think we could be any happier about that.
It was quite a journey to get here, and I think that we're all content to sit tight here for a week or so.
So we started out our journey last week, and our first stop was North Carolina. We didn't really do anything exciting, we just stayed one night there. In South Carolina, we stayed at a Yogi Bear campground for just one night as well. The morning that we were supposed to set off for Georgia, my dad found out that the engines didn't ship, and we had to consider going back to Virginia :O Thank the Lord we didn't, and we were able to set off for Georgia later that day :)
Every day that we drove, we made it about 150-200 miles. It takes 4-5 hours or so to go that much, when you factor in gas stops and Lily's potty stops :) All the days that we were driving, it was really hot, and we don't have air conditioning in the RV except for when we're stopped. So that makes for a really sweaty, long afternoon. It was super duper humid, and due to that and some other factors, Kyrsten and my feet swelled up! We looked like Ogres or Wild Things or something, it was really funny looking and very uncomfortable. We had a brief meltdown due to the chubby feet, but thankfully we're back to our normal foot size now :) Along with chubby feet, on the day that we were in South Carolina, my upper lip also decided to swell up! I looked like a duck. It was really weird and we have no idea why that happened. It lasted for about 16 hours, but after a good night of sleep due to the Benadryl, it was about back to normal...
So I think it was Wednesday that we drove to Georgia. We ended up staying at an RV resort that was just south of Savannah. The RV resort was SO gorgeous! They had a dog park for Lily and the bathrooms were the most beautiful public bathrooms ever! It was a really nice break from the state park bathrooms and showers.
Thursday we went to Tomoka State Park in Florida! It was like staying in a very wild jungle. The guy told us not to go out at night because there were rattlesnakes, we had fire ants try and take over the RV, and we saw an alligator in the river behind our RV. It was craziness, but we had a ton of fun!
Friday, my bottom lip decided to swell up! It looked like I was pouting for 6 solid hours! I don't know if I got bit by something or what, but I sure do hope that never happens again, it was no fun.
Anyway, we left to go to Naples Florida to see Grandpa and Grandma Josefina. It was just downright beautiful there. I would live there in a heartbeat! They take us right in and let us stay in their house with them, we got to sleep in real beds! Grandma Jo made us amazing, authentic Mexican food, and we got to spend the days relaxing on their farm. They have three awesome dogs that us kids and Lily spent a lot of the time with, and they have goats and chickens too. We had a blast.
We left last night after spending 2 nights there, and had quite a time getting here. We had to stop and pick up a rental car for Dad at an airport in Miami...Do you have any idea what it is like to drive the RV around the airport?? They don't make it very accessible to big vehicles. We drove up to go in the rental place, and just barely caught it that we are too tall to fit in there, thank goodness we caught it before we ripped the top off! And the drivers were just merciless; coming up behind us and laying on their horns and being very impatient. If they knew what it was like to drive the RV, they'd be a little nicer. We ended up having to park in a tow-away zone while Dad jumped bushes and ran across the street to the airport. A car was blocked in from the way that we were parked, so Mom got a chance to drive the RV for the first time! We quickly found a different tow-away zone close by to park in, thankfully, so she didn't have to go far. It was a pretty stressful night, but here we are!
This RV park is just wonderful. The bathrooms and showers are clean, and they have the prettiest circle pool I've ever seen. We're going to be extremely tanned by the time we are done here :)
For dinner tonight, we are having grilled salmon, baked potatoes, and no bake cookies! All prepared in our baby kitchen, by Mom. I don't even know how she does it, but I'm going to go get some while its hot. :)
I will update some more as soon as we have more stuff to share! Thanks everybody for keeping up with us!!
Monday, September 20, 2010
WWCW
So I (Christian) was asked to guest-star on the Blog tonight..."they really want to hear from your perspective"...I feel they've been educated too well on making a sales pitch, or in light of the Spiritual training...making an appeal.
So looking back over the past posts...I would love to say we've been training circus monkeys or taming savage moose however its been more about finishing a month of living in the VA/WVA campgrounds. I must say I never knew WVA to be soo beautiful, the mountains provide great exploratory adventures and blisters to prove it! Between Rockclimbing, Caves, water snakes and dodging falling Acorns (Red Oaks Acorns are MUCH heavier and larger than the typical MI Oak trees), we lived big in WVA!
To catch everybody up on the past 5 days, Thursday was Rain, Friday was food with Friends (Critchfields)and slight modifications to RV which added an additional 10' to the back of the RV thanks to the Engine Management Specialists of WVA (Tim and Debbie). We were richly blessed by Tim and Debbie with 2 Schwinn scooters and a carrier that mounts in front of the bike mount off the back of our 28' rig. Although it's a 1988 Fleetwood, we refer to Mable as Vintage and she draws some great attention by the older/wiser generations in the campgrounds...probably reminiscing about when they bought their first RV! We are blessed to have her and she runs AWESOME...NOW!
Friday Night was spent in another Walmart parking lot. A late start left us lot-less for the night. It's always exciting when the shift change happens in the middle of the night. Although the average Walmart workers are helpful, the night shift leaves people restless and inquisitive as to the temporary tenants (us). The thought of a full "waste-tank" to send a message has crossed my mind a few times.
Saturday we landed in a nice campground in WVA that provided too many hills on a mountain biking adventure for Justin and me. How you can take an 8 mile mountain biking trip and 9 of the miles is uphill is beyond me. That Lance Armstrong has become a hero of ours recently.
A Sunday hike with the girls made for a great day to worship God for what He created...being prostrate before HIM took on a new meaning! HE spared us from a VERY close encounter on one occasion with an alarmed 4' water snake and gave us the energy to press on. I think I'm learning that in all of Moses' and David's wandering/running...it tired them out so they would have to be still and listen to HIM.
Monday...today...woke up in Babcock WVA, finishing our last night in WVA. We're moving on to take on the South.
So these 2 cool new scooters have been a hit with the family...so much a hit that we now need a new tire on one of the models. Which leaves us temporarily with one solo scoot and 3 girls headed for the shower. You'd think that there would be a huge war between who gets the scooter, but my wise as Solomon wife has found a way to keep the girls from arguing. This morning...with the stealth of bigfoot and the cunning of a serpent...my wife in her pre-shower glory sped swiftly away from her daughters to prevent a squabble on the only scooter. I'm not sure which was funnier...her speeding away laughing like the witch of the west, or the pre-preparation girls riding frantically on their bikes after her in chase.
Tomorrow brings a new day with new adventures...headed towards Miami after handling some business in the Carolinas. Keep an eye out for the pictures being posted on FB. Morning starts with the rise of the sun...time to start clearing off the storage area which doubles as our bed...Goodnight world.
So looking back over the past posts...I would love to say we've been training circus monkeys or taming savage moose however its been more about finishing a month of living in the VA/WVA campgrounds. I must say I never knew WVA to be soo beautiful, the mountains provide great exploratory adventures and blisters to prove it! Between Rockclimbing, Caves, water snakes and dodging falling Acorns (Red Oaks Acorns are MUCH heavier and larger than the typical MI Oak trees), we lived big in WVA!
To catch everybody up on the past 5 days, Thursday was Rain, Friday was food with Friends (Critchfields)and slight modifications to RV which added an additional 10' to the back of the RV thanks to the Engine Management Specialists of WVA (Tim and Debbie). We were richly blessed by Tim and Debbie with 2 Schwinn scooters and a carrier that mounts in front of the bike mount off the back of our 28' rig. Although it's a 1988 Fleetwood, we refer to Mable as Vintage and she draws some great attention by the older/wiser generations in the campgrounds...probably reminiscing about when they bought their first RV! We are blessed to have her and she runs AWESOME...NOW!
Friday Night was spent in another Walmart parking lot. A late start left us lot-less for the night. It's always exciting when the shift change happens in the middle of the night. Although the average Walmart workers are helpful, the night shift leaves people restless and inquisitive as to the temporary tenants (us). The thought of a full "waste-tank" to send a message has crossed my mind a few times.
Saturday we landed in a nice campground in WVA that provided too many hills on a mountain biking adventure for Justin and me. How you can take an 8 mile mountain biking trip and 9 of the miles is uphill is beyond me. That Lance Armstrong has become a hero of ours recently.
A Sunday hike with the girls made for a great day to worship God for what He created...being prostrate before HIM took on a new meaning! HE spared us from a VERY close encounter on one occasion with an alarmed 4' water snake and gave us the energy to press on. I think I'm learning that in all of Moses' and David's wandering/running...it tired them out so they would have to be still and listen to HIM.
Monday...today...woke up in Babcock WVA, finishing our last night in WVA. We're moving on to take on the South.
So these 2 cool new scooters have been a hit with the family...so much a hit that we now need a new tire on one of the models. Which leaves us temporarily with one solo scoot and 3 girls headed for the shower. You'd think that there would be a huge war between who gets the scooter, but my wise as Solomon wife has found a way to keep the girls from arguing. This morning...with the stealth of bigfoot and the cunning of a serpent...my wife in her pre-shower glory sped swiftly away from her daughters to prevent a squabble on the only scooter. I'm not sure which was funnier...her speeding away laughing like the witch of the west, or the pre-preparation girls riding frantically on their bikes after her in chase.
Tomorrow brings a new day with new adventures...headed towards Miami after handling some business in the Carolinas. Keep an eye out for the pictures being posted on FB. Morning starts with the rise of the sun...time to start clearing off the storage area which doubles as our bed...Goodnight world.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Food poisoning, and some other adventures.
We're in West Virginia! Couple more days until we'll be heading out. We're having a good time, but we're definitely looking forward to moving on!!
A couple days ago, we got to go biking in the mountains. What an adventure that was. A few family members; Dad, Justin, and Kyrsten, were smart and started conditioning before we left. It's safe to say that they had a bit of an easier time than Mom and I :) The view and overall experience was worth it, but my goodness what a workout that was. I guess we're building up for the Rocky's though. Oh boy I can hardly wait. :/ haha
Last night we had the opportunity to go out to dinner with one of my Dad's business people. They were really cool! A few days before when my dad had met up with him, he heard we were campers, and they let us have these awesome electric scooters that they used to use! They are SO much fun, the kids and I have been just zooming all over the campground here, its a blast!
Anyway, last night they took us to Oliverio's, a really yummy restaurant that's here. As soon as we finished eating Mom's stomach started to get upset. By the time we got back she was sooo pale and her eyes were crazy and she looked really bad. It got even worse; honestly, I have never seen her so sick in my life. It was really bad, and she was throwing up and having stomach cramps and everything...it was not good. She had a pretty rough night, but she's better today, except for being tired from not sleeping well. So yeah we're sure it was food poisoning. Freaky stuff!
Lily has made some friends! There's a couple little neighbor dogs that she's hanging out with. They're rat terriers so they look kind of like her, she's being a good friend for the most part, but she tried to go over there today for a surprise visit, and we had to explain to her that that isn't very good manners! :)
There's really not a whole lot else to write about right now! I'll blog some more when we're in Miami because they have wi-fi at the campground we're going to be staying at!
A couple days ago, we got to go biking in the mountains. What an adventure that was. A few family members; Dad, Justin, and Kyrsten, were smart and started conditioning before we left. It's safe to say that they had a bit of an easier time than Mom and I :) The view and overall experience was worth it, but my goodness what a workout that was. I guess we're building up for the Rocky's though. Oh boy I can hardly wait. :/ haha
Last night we had the opportunity to go out to dinner with one of my Dad's business people. They were really cool! A few days before when my dad had met up with him, he heard we were campers, and they let us have these awesome electric scooters that they used to use! They are SO much fun, the kids and I have been just zooming all over the campground here, its a blast!
Anyway, last night they took us to Oliverio's, a really yummy restaurant that's here. As soon as we finished eating Mom's stomach started to get upset. By the time we got back she was sooo pale and her eyes were crazy and she looked really bad. It got even worse; honestly, I have never seen her so sick in my life. It was really bad, and she was throwing up and having stomach cramps and everything...it was not good. She had a pretty rough night, but she's better today, except for being tired from not sleeping well. So yeah we're sure it was food poisoning. Freaky stuff!
Lily has made some friends! There's a couple little neighbor dogs that she's hanging out with. They're rat terriers so they look kind of like her, she's being a good friend for the most part, but she tried to go over there today for a surprise visit, and we had to explain to her that that isn't very good manners! :)
There's really not a whole lot else to write about right now! I'll blog some more when we're in Miami because they have wi-fi at the campground we're going to be staying at!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Just some more stuff.
Hey everybody! Sorry there hasn't been an update for awhile. The wifi was too slow for blogging at our last campsite!! But here we are :)
Thursday we went to George Washington's house, and it was so cool!! We were nervous about how Lily would do, because there's a lot of animals there. When we first walked in, we were greeted by some sheep, and Lily ran right up and kissed them! It was so cute.
Then we went and toured his house, we got to see where he died and all of the original decorations and a bunch of other stuff. At his house, they have people dress up and pretend to be random relatives of George Washington,
and there's also people who pretend to be his slaves, and it is just suuuper uncomfortable because there's nothing to talk about with them because they're just lying about everything!! They use pretend accents, and they just make up a bunch of things...it's awkward. What do you say to a pretend slave--"Hey nice shoes", they would just look at you like you're crazy!!
There was a bunch of other cool things about his house, we saw his tomb, went to a museum about him, and yeah it is basically just a super cool place!! :)
On Friday, Dad, Kyrsten, and I went to Starbucks for the morning because mom wasn't feeling great and we were just looking to get out of the RV for a bit :) we didn't end up doing much of anything else for the day. But...
On Saturday, we went to Washington DC!! We went there a couple of years ago, and most of us loved it, so we decided to go back for an afternoon. After we finally found a parking place, we went to the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall, with the Reflective Pool. It was cool to see those things again; last time we were in DC it was Memorial day so everything was PACKED. So this time we were able to enjoy it more!!
Saturday night, the owners of the campground had a smores party down by the offices. We hadn't planned on going because...well, it just seems kind of weird to go eat smores with a bunch of random strangers. We drove by to see how busy it was, and nobody was there except for the three owners. It was really sad to see the little old people sitting there by themselves because nobody wanted to go to their party, so Dad, Kyrsten, and I decided to go. They looked so excited when we pulled up. It was so cute! Their names were George, Mary, and Phyllis, and the three of them ran the campground. They were just the sweetest people EVER and they talked with us for a while. Mary asked me when I was graduating, and what I wanted to do with my life after that, and when I told her I wanted to be a missionary she got all excited, said, "Well God bless you!", and told me all about her grandson who is a missionary in South America. It was so nice to meet such sweet people, because so far we haven't found a lot of friendly people here. In the stores here a lot of the people have been so pushy and rude! It’s really discouraging. We've just been praying everyday that God will use us to be an example for Him.
Monday, we decided to go for a walk in a national forest that was a few miles away. We ended up going for our walk around 6:30, not realizing that it got dark at 7:30. We got a little turned around while we were in the woods-and it got dark pretty fast. It was a bit unnerving. While we were super deep in the woods, we came across just one lone tent out in the middle of this national forest, and then out of no where there was this super loud noise that sounded like a stringed instrument that just started playing out of the blue! It scared the mess out of us. Haha. It sounded like something that would be on “The Village”. We still don’t know where the music came from, we were just freaked out and started heading back the way that we came. It kept getting darker and darker until we couldn’t even see where we were walking. I turned on some worship music on my phone and we all just started praying that God would help get us out because we really had no idea where we were. Eventually we got out, and we were all SO relieved. The State Park Ranger was coming to close the gates for the night when we finally got to our car, we were soooo close to having to spend the night out there!! God is good to us…
We had been planning on leaving Virginia Tuesday morning. We had everything all ready to go, and we got in the RV and it wouldn’t start up. So the boys spent the day trying to figure out what was wrong, and by about 5:00 pm they figured out what was wrong, and got it fixed so we won’t have any more problems with it—PTL! We stayed one more night in at the campground that we had been at for over a week, we were definitely ready to leave.
Wednesday Dad lined up a business thing in Bridgeport Virginia, so we set off and when we got there, there was no cell phone service at all. Which was really bad for us because Dad had to do some stuff for his work, and he has to have a phone to do that. So we drove into a town nearby and sat at a McDonalds in the RV for the evening. It’s funny how you find ways to entertain yourself for hours and hours in the RV. Texting is a great time passer. So is reading. But Kyrsten and I found like the most fun thing ever to do when it’s night in the RV and we’re bored out of our minds…Shadow puppets. We crank up the music and use crazy accents and put on a whole little foreign puppet dance party. Hahaha. Somehow its’ really entertaining, and we do it until we get things shouted at us such as; “Girls! That’s enough-you’re so loud!” Or, “SHUT UP!” ☺
So on Thursday morning Mom and Dad told us that there were these big huge chimneys at the campground we were staying at, and that we had to go see them before we left! I was confused. Why would I care about seeing a bunch of chimneys? Lol. They were actually these huge, natural, God made chimneys that were like….really tall. My mom took some pictures; she’ll probably put them on Facebook. Because it sounds really lame, but it was actually really cool! There were caves and stuff that we got to go in. It was neat.
After that, we drove Dad up to his client’s office in the RV, and we just chilled in the RV while Dad did his business stuff. Mom made grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot! It was funny stuff. After Dad got done, we went to an Amish farmers market, and we got a bag full of just the marshmallows that are in Lucky Charms! And we got beef jerky and apples, all made from the Amish. I just love those guys.
Oh I have a funny story. Yesterday, my neck was super sore, and my mom was trying to think of stuff to give me to make me feel better. So we were just driving down the road, and my mom looks at me and says super loud, “I HAVE BEEN GAY!”…What??? I just stared at her and couldn’t even think of anything to say to that. She started laughing super hard as I just stared at her, and she told me about Bengay, a muscle cream that makes your muscles feel better. ☺ Needless to say, I was very relieved to hear that she wasn’t coming out of the closet. We had a really good laugh about that.
And that leads up to today. We are back in West Virginia for the next few days. We’re staying at a super cool campground, and like everything about except for the showers! They’re moldy and super dirty, and we get to scrub up with little roaches and spiders watching us! Yeah. It’s not a good time. But at least we have showers, so we don’t smell like stink ☺
It’s super hard to blog out here, that’s why I haven’t been able to in so long! I will blog again as soon as I can. Hope you all have a nice day.
Thursday we went to George Washington's house, and it was so cool!! We were nervous about how Lily would do, because there's a lot of animals there. When we first walked in, we were greeted by some sheep, and Lily ran right up and kissed them! It was so cute.
Then we went and toured his house, we got to see where he died and all of the original decorations and a bunch of other stuff. At his house, they have people dress up and pretend to be random relatives of George Washington,
On Friday, Dad, Kyrsten, and I went to Starbucks for the morning because mom wasn't feeling great and we were just looking to get out of the RV for a bit :) we didn't end up doing much of anything else for the day. But...
On Saturday, we went to Washington DC!! We went there a couple of years ago, and most of us loved it, so we decided to go back for an afternoon. After we finally found a parking place, we went to the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall, with the Reflective Pool. It was cool to see those things again; last time we were in DC it was Memorial day so everything was PACKED. So this time we were able to enjoy it more!!
Saturday night, the owners of the campground had a smores party down by the offices. We hadn't planned on going because...well, it just seems kind of weird to go eat smores with a bunch of random strangers. We drove by to see how busy it was, and nobody was there except for the three owners. It was really sad to see the little old people sitting there by themselves because nobody wanted to go to their party, so Dad, Kyrsten, and I decided to go. They looked so excited when we pulled up. It was so cute! Their names were George, Mary, and Phyllis, and the three of them ran the campground. They were just the sweetest people EVER and they talked with us for a while. Mary asked me when I was graduating, and what I wanted to do with my life after that, and when I told her I wanted to be a missionary she got all excited, said, "Well God bless you!", and told me all about her grandson who is a missionary in South America. It was so nice to meet such sweet people, because so far we haven't found a lot of friendly people here. In the stores here a lot of the people have been so pushy and rude! It’s really discouraging. We've just been praying everyday that God will use us to be an example for Him.
Monday, we decided to go for a walk in a national forest that was a few miles away. We ended up going for our walk around 6:30, not realizing that it got dark at 7:30. We got a little turned around while we were in the woods-and it got dark pretty fast. It was a bit unnerving. While we were super deep in the woods, we came across just one lone tent out in the middle of this national forest, and then out of no where there was this super loud noise that sounded like a stringed instrument that just started playing out of the blue! It scared the mess out of us. Haha. It sounded like something that would be on “The Village”. We still don’t know where the music came from, we were just freaked out and started heading back the way that we came. It kept getting darker and darker until we couldn’t even see where we were walking. I turned on some worship music on my phone and we all just started praying that God would help get us out because we really had no idea where we were. Eventually we got out, and we were all SO relieved. The State Park Ranger was coming to close the gates for the night when we finally got to our car, we were soooo close to having to spend the night out there!! God is good to us…
We had been planning on leaving Virginia Tuesday morning. We had everything all ready to go, and we got in the RV and it wouldn’t start up. So the boys spent the day trying to figure out what was wrong, and by about 5:00 pm they figured out what was wrong, and got it fixed so we won’t have any more problems with it—PTL! We stayed one more night in at the campground that we had been at for over a week, we were definitely ready to leave.
Wednesday Dad lined up a business thing in Bridgeport Virginia, so we set off and when we got there, there was no cell phone service at all. Which was really bad for us because Dad had to do some stuff for his work, and he has to have a phone to do that. So we drove into a town nearby and sat at a McDonalds in the RV for the evening. It’s funny how you find ways to entertain yourself for hours and hours in the RV. Texting is a great time passer. So is reading. But Kyrsten and I found like the most fun thing ever to do when it’s night in the RV and we’re bored out of our minds…Shadow puppets. We crank up the music and use crazy accents and put on a whole little foreign puppet dance party. Hahaha. Somehow its’ really entertaining, and we do it until we get things shouted at us such as; “Girls! That’s enough-you’re so loud!” Or, “SHUT UP!” ☺
So on Thursday morning Mom and Dad told us that there were these big huge chimneys at the campground we were staying at, and that we had to go see them before we left! I was confused. Why would I care about seeing a bunch of chimneys? Lol. They were actually these huge, natural, God made chimneys that were like….really tall. My mom took some pictures; she’ll probably put them on Facebook. Because it sounds really lame, but it was actually really cool! There were caves and stuff that we got to go in. It was neat.
After that, we drove Dad up to his client’s office in the RV, and we just chilled in the RV while Dad did his business stuff. Mom made grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot! It was funny stuff. After Dad got done, we went to an Amish farmers market, and we got a bag full of just the marshmallows that are in Lucky Charms! And we got beef jerky and apples, all made from the Amish. I just love those guys.
Oh I have a funny story. Yesterday, my neck was super sore, and my mom was trying to think of stuff to give me to make me feel better. So we were just driving down the road, and my mom looks at me and says super loud, “I HAVE BEEN GAY!”…What??? I just stared at her and couldn’t even think of anything to say to that. She started laughing super hard as I just stared at her, and she told me about Bengay, a muscle cream that makes your muscles feel better. ☺ Needless to say, I was very relieved to hear that she wasn’t coming out of the closet. We had a really good laugh about that.
And that leads up to today. We are back in West Virginia for the next few days. We’re staying at a super cool campground, and like everything about except for the showers! They’re moldy and super dirty, and we get to scrub up with little roaches and spiders watching us! Yeah. It’s not a good time. But at least we have showers, so we don’t smell like stink ☺
It’s super hard to blog out here, that’s why I haven’t been able to in so long! I will blog again as soon as I can. Hope you all have a nice day.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Earl had better keep to himself.
Not a whole lot to share today, we're pretty much just chillin in Virginia. Honestly, Virginia is not my favorite place in the whole world. It's like a big oven! You can't even go hang out outside without sweating a gallon. But I am definitely grateful for the time away from the normal routine, I think everyone in my family is. And we are all definitely anticipating going out west! :)
So today I was reading up on Hurricane Earl. He doesn't seem like the friendliest fella around. The Governor of Virgina has declared it an emergency, expecting it to hit Thursday night. We called the front desk of the campground we're staying at, and asked if they knew any more of what to expect. They said that most likely there will be some wind and rain, and that we shouldn't worry about it. We're pretty inland, so here's hoping they're right!! I guess the good thing about living on wheels is that if danger is coming, you drive away :) we're all just praying it won't come to that.
Tomorrow we're going to George Washington's house!! Mount Vernon, is what its really called. I'm SO excited!! Mom, Justin, Kyrsten, and I went a couple years ago, but honestly I don't remember it. haha. So tomorrow will be like a whole new experience for Dad and I!! (: There's a petting farm (YES!!!), And you get to tour George Washington's actual plantation, his house, everything. It's going to be big fun!
I will definitely write tomorrow and tell you all about Mount Vernon and whatever else we end up doing. (:
So today I was reading up on Hurricane Earl. He doesn't seem like the friendliest fella around. The Governor of Virgina has declared it an emergency, expecting it to hit Thursday night. We called the front desk of the campground we're staying at, and asked if they knew any more of what to expect. They said that most likely there will be some wind and rain, and that we shouldn't worry about it. We're pretty inland, so here's hoping they're right!! I guess the good thing about living on wheels is that if danger is coming, you drive away :) we're all just praying it won't come to that.
Tomorrow we're going to George Washington's house!! Mount Vernon, is what its really called. I'm SO excited!! Mom, Justin, Kyrsten, and I went a couple years ago, but honestly I don't remember it. haha. So tomorrow will be like a whole new experience for Dad and I!! (: There's a petting farm (YES!!!), And you get to tour George Washington's actual plantation, his house, everything. It's going to be big fun!
I will definitely write tomorrow and tell you all about Mount Vernon and whatever else we end up doing. (:
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Caroline Ingalls meets Polly Pocket
Addie is letting me guest-star on the blog today. There's not too much news for her to tell, and I thought you might like some behind-the-scenes info on rv life. Please note, none of this is to be taken as complaining--rather informational. I am in no way allowing myself to even consider complaints as each moment is a gift from my Heavenly Daddy.
I am, however, challenged, but rising to it victoriously--and with a Ma Ingalls smile.
I must admit that whoever designed this vehicle 22 years ago, when I was practically still a baby, was a clever, clever girl. It had to be a girl because every nook and cranny is used for something. Having said that, I find myself challenged to be equally as clever using ONE-TENTH of my usual living space work efficiently for five people. Have I mentioned that I am even grateful that no one in our family rises above 5'9". No one, I repeat, no one bigger than that should attempt rv life in 28 feet or less. MY knees hit the bathroom door when seated upon the throne. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
My kitchen was most certainly designed by Polly Pocket. My sweet boys, precious as they are, were pretty sure that I would be cooking squaw-style over a campfire each night and keep us fed. OH NO! That does not satisfy my grocery budget or my taste buds. How many forms of tube shaped meat can one eat? No, I love to eat even more than I love to cook so I am using a teeny, tiny gas stove and as tiny of a budget as possible to cook fabulous meals that surprise my family. Before I left I crammed as much of my coupon-purchased pantry into a few small cupboards. Now, here's where I impress even myself...
The day before we left or so, we discovered that our hot water lines were damaged beyond what we had time or ability to fix. No problem, we thought! We'll just use campground showers and our solar shower bag. Campground showers deserve their very own blog installment on a different day. Imagine my dismay when two or so days into the trip when the water pump also died. This means that no water can run from our neat tank under the couch through any faucet. This also means all water used is hauled in by jugs. See why I had three kids? So, to make coffee or wash dishes, I am much like an Ingalls woman~gather and heat the water.
Now, shall we talk about the counter space that is measured in inches, not feet? Let's just say that when not in use, my microwave and stove double as storage for dishes and pots so there is much shifting to create anything.
We have learned that five towels a day can hang from knobs to dry for tomorrow. They look so colorful hanging around here. We have learned that riding your bike in your pj's with no makeup on and with major bedhead and a Meijer bag over your shoulder is really kind of cool in a way~especially since no one will ever see us again anyway. Right? We've learned that showering with dragonflies and various other flying things in an open-air shower is kind of exhilarating in it's own way. We've learned even more than usual that to be successful in anything, even washing our hands, we need to function as a team. We've learned that good attitudes and a smile go even farther than usual.
I try not to dwell on the fact that Justin moves upon the close of this trip. I refuse to ruin these precious moments being melancholy. I am reminded each day of how God chooses family members and puts them together to function so beautifully together when willing to be used. I choose to focus on how very amazing it is that we can do this and still can't wait for the next day together. Only God.
Every day that we've been driving we've memorized verses together. I will close with our latest--from memory, mind you. :o)
Psalm 9:1,2
I'm thanking you from a full heart, God! I'm writing the book on Your wonders. I'm whistling, laughing, and jumping for joy. I'm singing Your song, High God.
I am, however, challenged, but rising to it victoriously--and with a Ma Ingalls smile.
I must admit that whoever designed this vehicle 22 years ago, when I was practically still a baby, was a clever, clever girl. It had to be a girl because every nook and cranny is used for something. Having said that, I find myself challenged to be equally as clever using ONE-TENTH of my usual living space work efficiently for five people. Have I mentioned that I am even grateful that no one in our family rises above 5'9". No one, I repeat, no one bigger than that should attempt rv life in 28 feet or less. MY knees hit the bathroom door when seated upon the throne. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
My kitchen was most certainly designed by Polly Pocket. My sweet boys, precious as they are, were pretty sure that I would be cooking squaw-style over a campfire each night and keep us fed. OH NO! That does not satisfy my grocery budget or my taste buds. How many forms of tube shaped meat can one eat? No, I love to eat even more than I love to cook so I am using a teeny, tiny gas stove and as tiny of a budget as possible to cook fabulous meals that surprise my family. Before I left I crammed as much of my coupon-purchased pantry into a few small cupboards. Now, here's where I impress even myself...
The day before we left or so, we discovered that our hot water lines were damaged beyond what we had time or ability to fix. No problem, we thought! We'll just use campground showers and our solar shower bag. Campground showers deserve their very own blog installment on a different day. Imagine my dismay when two or so days into the trip when the water pump also died. This means that no water can run from our neat tank under the couch through any faucet. This also means all water used is hauled in by jugs. See why I had three kids? So, to make coffee or wash dishes, I am much like an Ingalls woman~gather and heat the water.
Now, shall we talk about the counter space that is measured in inches, not feet? Let's just say that when not in use, my microwave and stove double as storage for dishes and pots so there is much shifting to create anything.
We have learned that five towels a day can hang from knobs to dry for tomorrow. They look so colorful hanging around here. We have learned that riding your bike in your pj's with no makeup on and with major bedhead and a Meijer bag over your shoulder is really kind of cool in a way~especially since no one will ever see us again anyway. Right? We've learned that showering with dragonflies and various other flying things in an open-air shower is kind of exhilarating in it's own way. We've learned even more than usual that to be successful in anything, even washing our hands, we need to function as a team. We've learned that good attitudes and a smile go even farther than usual.
I try not to dwell on the fact that Justin moves upon the close of this trip. I refuse to ruin these precious moments being melancholy. I am reminded each day of how God chooses family members and puts them together to function so beautifully together when willing to be used. I choose to focus on how very amazing it is that we can do this and still can't wait for the next day together. Only God.
Every day that we've been driving we've memorized verses together. I will close with our latest--from memory, mind you. :o)
Psalm 9:1,2
I'm thanking you from a full heart, God! I'm writing the book on Your wonders. I'm whistling, laughing, and jumping for joy. I'm singing Your song, High God.
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